Awarding "points" for good classroom behavior improves behavior -- without destroying intrinsic motivation, writes Emily Oster on her Parent Data Substack. Paying for higher test scores does not.
Rewards may built good habits that last when the incentive is gone, she writes. Few teenagers expect M&Ms for using the toilet. (As a young child, my husband met a boy at the playground who'd regularly go to the "laboratory"and come back with a Lifesaver. John dreamed of finding the Lifesaver lab. It may explain his interest in science.)
Some teachers rely on incentives -- stickers, snacks, "kid-led Kahoots" -- while others say "I reward them with an education," writes Madeline Will in Education Week.
Lozetta Hayden, who teaches in a Delaware middle school, "has created an elaborate class economy," writes Will. Her sixth-graders can earn "Hayden dollars" for effort and good behavior, then spend their earnings at the class store. Stocked mostly with donated items, the store carries "everything from extra pencils or sugarless gum to big-ticket items, like Amazon Fire tablets or a bicycle." Also available are activities, such as "a chance to use the classroom PlayStation or the air hockey table." Her adult children teach cooking (daughter) and saxophone (son) for Hayden dollars.
On the flip side, "Hayden fines students 500 Hayden bucks for every curse word they use," writes Will.
It's empowering for students, Hayden tells Will, and it teaches them math skills. "Sometimes, she’ll adjust the prices in the classroom shop to teach a mini-lesson on supply and demand or inflation."
It sounds like a lot of work for the teacher, but perhaps it ultimately makes her job easier.